Our Verdict

While $70 for a burr grinder may sound enticing, the KRUPS GX5000 was outperformed in our taste testing by some cheaper blade grinders, mostly because it produces an inconsistent grind with small particulates that created bitter coffee. If you're looking for good taste on the cheap, we would recommend the Best Buy Award winning Epica Electric. It costs less and makes a better cup. However, if you don't mind some bitterness and want a cheap burr grinder, the KRUPS GX5000 may serve you well.

Our Analysis and Hands-on Test Results

The KRUPS GX5000 is well designed and inexpensive. However, its burr tends to produce a lot of fine particulates that sneak through filters and French presses to make coffee taste bitter.

Performance Comparison

Quality of Taste

Unfortunately the KRUPS GX5000 underperformed compared to the other burr grinders we tested. It earned only a 4 out of 10, putting it towards the bottom of our score sheet. Burr grinders usually provide a much more consistent grind than their bladed counterparts. However, the GX5000 always produced at least some very fine coffee dust, no matter what grind size we set it for. This dust was able to find its way through pour over filters and French press sieves, creating a very strong and bitter tasting coffee. The coffee wasn't undrinkable but definitely left us wanting to add some milk and sugar. The Epica Electric Spice and Coffee Grinder costs less and produced coffee in our testing that was much less bitter. We believe that the fine particles produced were a result of a low quality burr. When we compared the GX5000's burr to those of the other models we tested it felt flimsy and low quality. We believe this resulted in a much less consitent grind.

Ease of Use

The KRUPS GX5000 was a somewhat average performer in our ease of use testing, earning a score of 6 out of 10. Like all burr grinders, it is able to dose out the amount of coffee you need. However, the dial only lets you select the number of cups you want to make. We know some users will prefer knowing the weight of grinds that will be produced, and for that information you must use a conversion table in the manual. Also, the grind size knod tended to be a bit sticky, requiring a little extra force to get it to slide around to your desired setting. Otherwise operation was fairly smooth, just insert beans, select grind size and amount, and go.

The GX5000's grind size knob can be a bit sticky.

Quietness

The KRUPS GX5000 scored a 6 out of 10 in our noise testing, which was fairly average for a burr grinder. The noise was high pitched and noticeably enough that you might wake someone up sleeping in the next room, but we wouldn't call it particularly annoying or grating.

Mess-Free Operation

We weren't too excited when we had to clean out the KRUPS GX5000. Accordingly it scored a 5 out of 10 in our cleaning testing. The one reason we didn't like it was the fine coffee dust it produced. This dust cakes onto the inside of the grind container, requiring a bit of scrubbing and scraping to completely get off.

You can choose to grind enough beans for anything from 2 to 12 cups.

Value

While the KRUPS GX5000 is quite an inexpensive burr grinder at a list price of $70, it didn't perform as well as the other burr grinders in our test. In fact, there were blade grinders, like the Epica Electric, that cost less and produced better tasting coffee. Therefore we feel the KRUPS GX5000 is a relatively poor value.

Conclusion

The KRUPS GX5000 provides burr grinder technology at a low price. However, the burr is of generally low quality, and it didn't perform as well as blade grinders in the same price range.

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